ENEMIES WHO SHOULD BE ALLIES

　"We have laboured for nearly a century to bring to your world these ideals founded on spiritual verities which must endure because they are the foundation of the new order being built in your midst. We have endured and fought the opposi-tion, the hostility and the enmity of those who should have been our greatest allies. Instead of this great truth being welcomed with open arms by those who desire to instruct their flock in matters religious, they have denounced us in words of bitterness, betraying all the principles which they have sought to enunciate as coming from the founder of their religion. They have not displayed love or toleration. Indeed, they have described us as emissaries of the Devil and accused us of being angels of darkness, masquerading, seeking to seduce man from paths of rectitude into foul deeds, gross immoralities and selfishness.

　"Despite this bitter opposition, the truths for which we stand now engirdle your world and the forces that have opposed it are in headlong retreat. We deny the foundations of their orthodoxy. We deny that a curse was put upon your world by a Great Spirit Who is the epitome of love, justice, mercy and wisdom. We deny that a cruel blood sacrifice was necessary to appease the wrath of the Great Spirit. We deny that there was any interference with the natural law. We deny the whole basis and framework of their theology, which has put back the clock of man's progress and has opposed all dis-covery, all invention, all progress that did not fit into its own narrow scheme.

　"Instead, we reveal that revelation is progressive, that each teacher gleans a little more from the eternal reservoir of divine wisdom, that the Nazarene was the last of such teachers to come to your world and that we who preach the same gospel, enunciate the same truths, are in direct and lineal succession to the power of the spirit which operated in his day. We declare that man requires no saviour, no inter-mediary between the Great Spirit and himself, that he carries on his own shoulders the responsibility of his own burdens, that he makes or mars his spiritual life by his daily conduct, that he is as divine to-day as ever he will be except that he can express that divinity to a higher degree. The quality will never be changed; its essence remains the same for ever. Man by his evolution can express more and more of his latent divinity.

　"We deny that any formula can enable an individual to circumvent the result of his own actions. We say that the Great Spirit rules the universe by unchangeable, immutable law, and that each one of you judges yourself by the life that you have lived on earth. To those who have laboured for these truths and who have in days gone by suffered persecu-tion, we remind them that now the fruits of their labour are being gathered and they can see all over your world indica-tions that the old order is dying and that the new life of the spirit begins to manifest.

　"The clouds that have for too long obscured the sun of spiritual truth are scuttling away; the light is breaking through and illuminating the lives of countless thousands who are prepared to be the missionaries of the truth which has set them free. We have come to rescue the people of your world by teaching them how to save themselves, to cut away the dead past, to free themselves from bondage of matter, mind and spirit, to declare that they must not accept the old because it is old, but to search diligently for truth and to reject any-thing which is contrary to their commonsense and makes their reason revolt."

　When Silver Birch spoke at the first séance after a break in the sittings, during which he attended the conference of guides which is held twice a year in the spirit world, he confessed that he did not want to come back “from the world of light to your world of shadows, from the world of reality to your world of illusion.” He went on:

　"It was only your love and my mission that brought me to your world, so full of selfishness and cruelty. And so I return to work amongst you once again, to give you what help I can, to advance the great mission of freeing mankind, liberating him so that he may come out of his prison and enjoy what the Great Spirit intended those blessed with His divinity should have—the fullness of life, spiritual, mental and physical.

　"Everything that stands in the way of that realization must be swept on one side. We work for full freedom in all its aspects, and declare eternal war on all the forces of vested interest and selfishness that obstruct our path. May I who have lived longer than all of you and who know the road along which you must travel, give you all the encouragement I can, for each of you is doing a greater work than you under-stand.”

　Then he spoke about the work that is being done by all spirit guides and all circles:

　"In the past few years we have helped many along the road to knowledge. But greater service will be rendered. See how the power of healing manifests through many instruments, see how the open vision comes once again in the land. The voice of the prophet is heard once more, and they are begin-ning to dream dreams and see visions. The sick are being healed and the mourner is being comforted.    You are privileged, for you have the knowledge that man is an eternal, infinite spirit who sojourns on earth for a few short hours on the road to eternity.

　"With your co-operation I hope to be able to spread the message and to do the work of those who sent me. We march forward to victory and the forces of error and selfish-ness, superstition and ignorance, vainglory and tyranny will have to be dispersed and left behind, for their day is done. The darkness precedes the light, as truth makes herself known to you. Men cast their eyes upwards, seeking for the dawn of the new world, which gives them new hope and new under-standing. May the Great Spirit bless you all.”